International Women’s Day may be over, but the conversation about women’s work is far from finished.

At Gallery Oldham, artist Charlotte Hodes is turning that spotlight into portraiture. She captures women in the act of working, creating and shaping their own stories.

Titled “Women Portraits: Trades & Professions,” the exhibition celebrates women’s labour, creativity and legacy. Charlotte achieves this through powerful imagined portraits created on ceramic vases and through intricate papercuts. 

Rather than conventional portraits, Charlotte constructs representations of women identified not by their physical features but by the tools of their trade.

Charlotte said: “I want the exhibition to be a celebration of women’s achievements and contributions to professions, not just their faces.”

From botanists and arborists to doctors and astronomers, the works honour female labour across generations and social classes.

Through these works, Charlotte invites audiences to reconsider how women are represented in art, where identity is revealed not through faces, but through stethoscopes, telescopes and beekeeping smokers.

“This exhibition is a call for optimism,” she says.

“In the face of societal and economic uncertainty, I want to create work that acknowledges women’s historical struggles and triumphs, while celebrating their ongoing empowerment and visibility.”

The exhibition draws inspiration from Northern Roots, a developing urban farm and eco-park in Oldham. 

It references inspirational women from the region’s past and present. These include pioneering suffragists such as Dr Olive Clayden, Lydia Becker, Agnes Pochin, and Rosa Leo Grindon, alongside contemporary figures like beekeeper Damson Tregaskis and Northern Roots’ Anna Da Silva and Kimo Morrison.

Breaking stereotypes

Continuing the theme of challenge and celebration, many of the portraits explore professions and trades where women have historically been overlooked.

“There are good examples of trades where you don’t think of women being involved, like chain-making,” Charlotte explains.

“There are always many women who are not celebrated or acclaimed in their profession but make equally important contributions. So sometimes my work doesn’t represent one particular woman, but a group of women.”

Challenging the hierarchy of art

Charlotte’s own journey into the art world reflects some of the same barriers she now explores in her work.

When she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, attitudes towards women artists were still shaped by longstanding stereotypes.

“Women who studied art were often not considered serious enough,” she recalls.

“The idea was that female students were there to understand the work of male artists who were the geniuses. If they married those men, they would be supportive and step back.”

While she describes the Slade as “an amazing place to be,” she says the environment also reflected wider social expectations of the time.

“It was partly the era, partly my upbringing and partly the art college environment that made it more challenging than I thought it would be.”

A space of her own

Over time, Charlotte deliberately carved out her own artistic space away from traditional hierarchies.

“I was interested in paint, colour, pattern and decoration — but those things were often seen as superficial,” she says.

Instead of working on the conventional canvas, she began incorporating papercuts, collage and decorative objects such as plates and vases — materials historically associated with domestic spaces and women’s lives.

“The history of oil painting on canvas was so much of a male domain,” she says.

“I found a way to escape that by working with papercuts and collage.”

Monumental yet delicate

The works in the Oldham exhibition balance delicacy with a sense of monumentality.

Charlotte uses highly detailed cut paper and layered imagery, techniques that echo textile traditions and hand-making often associated with women’s craft.

Yet the figures themselves appear confident and powerful, elevated by the tools of their professions.

“The women represented are monumental,” she says.

“The process I’m using is very delicate, with lots of layering and intricate passages, but the image you see is of women raised on a pedestal of tools.”

For Charlotte, the goal is ultimately empowerment.

“I want women who visit the exhibition to recognise the achievements of women in history and today,” she says.

“I want them to feel empowered by the importance of women’s autonomy and choice in our lives and in society.”

The exhibition runs until May 9 at the Gallery Oldham.